General Question

What is inappropriate behavior for an adult?

your office is full of men who compete in farting contests. you still do “wet willies” or “wedgies.” you form a wad of paper in your mouth and spit it through a straw to somebody across the room. while in the bathroom, you ball up a wad of toilet paper and make it stick to the ceiling.

what is inappropriate behavior for adults? what have you seen, heard or smelled in adult situations that are inappropriate and childish? at what age should childish behavior cease but it shows up in adult behavior?

Although if I were the boss, anything that obstructs the process of work would be disallowed, but really people can do wtf they want on breaks, as long as they hurt nobody and that none of the property is damaged.

What I’ve seen which is extremely vile and immature aren’t silly pranks like your example, but employees ganging up on one employee and making their life a living hell through psychological abuse, usually on a long term basis. That’s disgusting and complete infamy if you ask me. It’s high school treatment bullshit, which I see a lot of with waitresses and hotel staff, for example. Most of the time, nothing is done to remedy this.

@Haleth i happen to be ticklish. one day, a male coworker of mine just happened to poke me on the side of my abdomen and i shook as, well, ticklish. ever since then, i get a ticklish poke from somebody just so they can see how i react. but we’re in our 30s and 40s!!!

I’ve had a few interactions with people where they displayed over the top immaturity and sensitivity. Like, really dude? Pull that sandy tampon out of your vagina.
Most likely the result of an egomaniac with a bruised ego. At least, that’s how I would describe these particular people. Not to mention adults who only care about themselves. That’s behavior displayed by a child. Not a 40 or 50 year old man or woman. It’s all childish to me.

But I agree with @tinyfaery that it depends on the circumstance. There’s nothing wrong with acting like a fool and being goofy, but it’s important to know when to be serious as well. Some people have no concept of that.

Wow! Immaturity to the 10th power. Guess it depends on the age group involved.
20 somethings maybe…40+ well….that’s why I am self employed. lol

IMO anything that could be offensive in a public situation/work enviroment would include bodily ‘noises’ or inflections, sexist or racist comments/jokes, off color jokes….but hey….I avoid much of the mainstream and like it that way. The age of ‘wisdom’ is a really good place to be! lol

@charliecompany34 I’m so tired, I can’t think! Hardly have the energy to type!
Ok, for example, and the list can go on:
Adults who have child-like temper tantrums when things don’t go their way.
Adults who have distanced themselves from their children, small children, like 7, 8, 9 and never call, even on their birthday, using the excuse, “Well, they never call ME on my birthday.”
Adults who party instead of taking care of their families.
Adults who do what they want to do instead of what they should do.
Hi Lilly.

What is appropriate or inappropriate behavior really depends on the circumstances. I think one of the things that defines maturity in terms of this sort of thing is that you understand that there is a difference between public space and private space, that you share the world with other people who have their own standards of what is acceptable, and in the case of the stuff you mentioned, that not everyone thinks you are as hilarious as your game watching, beer drinking buddies do and that there is a time and a place for everything. As far as how you behave in private, with your friends and family, another indication of maturity, I think is not doing stuff that bugs the crap out of people around the people it bugs the crap out of. They shouldn’t have to deal with it, or get over it. If it really bothers them, do it somewhere else.

Well…a lot of whats being described here could have a narcissistic twist as well..historically f—-‘ed up emotionally arrested ‘adults.’

Falling into the criteria of lack of sensitivity and empathy, gross self-centeredness and selfishness. Inability to put themselves in anothers shoes.

I don’t like to saddle anyone with the word ‘should’...perhaps ‘responsable’ is a better choice. There’s something to be said for the mantra of ‘don’t should on yourself!’ Big dif. between neuroticism and responsability.

I would say throwing temper tantrums such as stamping your feet and shaking your hands up and down while you yell “No, No, No” and pretend to cry.
Or probably sitting down on the floor and refusing to budge in the middle of the store, and have to be physically carried out.
Or you might call throwing everything in the store you can get your hands on because no one will buy you a balloon
Or dumping your drink on the floor because you don’t like it.
How about throwing spaghetti at the waitress because everybody laughs?

@lillycoyote I so agree. It’s inappropriate to use cuss words, or make certain innuendo’s around people when you don’t know how they feel about it. Even worse to continue doing it when they’ve politely made it clear that they don’t appreciate it, either by not laughing when they’re “supposed” to, or by some other social clue, such as leaving the room in disgust.

@mrrich724 yup, i agree. it’s the company you keep or are with. the closeness of the office or environment can accept those silly things. for some reason it shows up at inappropriate times and that’s where it goes back to childish behavior.

Impropriety in public. Acting uncivilly. Eg., road rage, having no manners and showing no respect to your fellow man (like making a scene in public to intimidate an employee at a store) , doing things that “cross the line”, like Kanye West’s embarrassing stage fiasco towards Taylor Swift when she accepted her music award, not accepting responsibility for grave mistakes and rectifying them, abusing innocent children and animals and other forms of violence like bullying. Those are all unacceptable for adults.